Intensive course on Synchronization

Lecturer: Peter J. Cameron (QMUL)

10–11 June 2010, De Morgan House

A (finite-state deterministic) automaton is synchronizing if there
is a sequence of transitions which brings the automaton to a fixed state
from an arbitrary starting point; in other words, the monoid generated by
the transitions of the automaton contains a constant function. Such a
sequence is called a reset word.

The celebrated Černý conjecture asserts that if an
n-state automaton
has a reset word, then it has one of length at most (n–1)².

Course details and registration

I intend to make the course self-contained as far as possible. However, the
material on permutation groups and on finite geometries is somewhat technical.
You may wish to do some preliminary reading before the course. I recommend the
following: